All of the below comments from Siddharth, Shijo and Mihir, happened on facebook as a reaction to the original post.

I am sharing it here, because it adds immensely to the original post. First time I am attempting migrating comments from one platform to another

How I wish there was a tool that aggregates comments

Wikipedia is an ideal example of a democracy. Not sure about an accurate definition, but I would classify it as a media house, & a fairly accurate source of information. Most topics have an agenda that is set by the crowds, and pleasantly most topics contain neutral views. Probably I haven't understood exactly what you mean in the context of media... Read More. What Dell is doing is putting the responsibility for incremental innovation in the hands of the consumer. I am not sure if the democratic approach will result in break through innovation, but it makes the process of perfecting an existing product rather easy.

The other important question that comes to mind is whether everyone is equal. I mean would the design chief of Apple be equal to the 300000 votes of the Dell Idea storm.

A democracy can very beautifully capture the very best of todya. But tomorrow could only be vision by the design chief who superior to all others due to a host of reasons include his own capabilities, passion, experience etc etc.

But the important points is now what is better. The point is that these are two different approaches with its own advantanges and limitations. ... Read More

The google duo through their genius made the manual yahoo and other search processes obsolete. They were trendsetters. However can there be another such guy in the search business. My guess is that its going to be quite difficult because search has created its own set of legacy and huge infrastructure. These factors and the investments would make a garage attempt almost impossible.

Nice points. A few thoughts from my side:
Agree with Shijo that the reasons Wiki became such a phenomenon because it systematized democracy in a well defined structure. Another amazing examples of incremental innovation that I have been involved in are the SAP Community Network and the Business Process Expert community. These are Creation Spaces ... Read Morethat have been intentionally crafted and thoughtfully laid out to provide the perfect scenario for large group collaboration. These have resulted in mapping complex business processes into SAP software by picking the best brains from world over - there is NO WAY this could have been done by a hoard of SAP specialists internally.
Ishwar - Wisdom of Crowds or more generally Adam Smith's Invisible Hand shall prevail in the free market ONLY when the mass acts in a principle-centred manner. Adam Smith himself makes this clear in his not so well known work "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". Look no more than the recent Wall Street crisis.

Sid has a point. The thread is no longer what it was ;) I found the concept of Dictatorship vs Democracy interesting. The extent of control is an everyday phenomenon to me. I often feel shackled and so do people under me ;) And thus went focus for a toss and I went all over the place :D

I may be deviating from what Ishwar started but found Mihir's... Read More point interesting. I mean I have heard of Microsoft and SAP community networks and they are phenomenal empowering agents. Every organization has some form of a mechanism to capture thoughts and ideas. However what most places lack is the structure of a say SAP Community Network.

Very good point. Mine is very operational setup where we discourage innovation at the frontline. The brief to them is to stick to the process. Works very well in our setup. However it can be stiffling at times and despite being so operational there are a hundred ideas that if tapped could have $ implications.

The point here is that do you ... Read Morecentrally control innovation because you think you know best or do you have some mechanism of ensuring the other stakeholders esp the customer/consumer is also heard?

I think it's also a brand thing ... I know that Hilton were reluctant to get into social media till recently because they weren't sure how it would affect their brand ... my point is .. there's no general thumb rule ..

I must say I got more out of the comments than anyone could have from the original post...

@Sid Spot on about crowd sourcing vs social media and I might have got a little mixed up there, but sometimes as a marketer I see them closely related. Both give the consumer a voice that he didn't have earlier, both when used well can engage with the consumer and result in a vibrant involved community

@Sid Also intent wasn't to generalise or say everyone should do it, but that it is worth contemplating. Can Caterpillar do the same? Maybe... Maybe not. What if a large majority of the consumers wished a frequently accessed control button wasn't right at the bottom. A forum similar to The Idea Storm to highlight consumer pain points is still valid (even if it isn't open to the world)... Read More

@Mihir Superb thought... Will read up on the Moral Sentiments

@Shijo Your point on Is everyone equal was fantastic and something I hadn't considered.Relative importance will prove crucial in defining any structure